By Samuel John Klein of Portland, Oregon - An Independent Graphic Designer living in a city that was built upon an ancient Unicorn burial ground.

30 October 2007

[logo_design] PDX Logo History-Seen On The Streets

1064. Well-known names have updated around town, over the last couple of decades or so. But legacies do remain.

This picture is of the big TriMet logo that's still mounted on the south end of the bus barns–that big building at the northeast corner of SE 17th Ave and Holgate Blvd. If you ever see a bus with the words "CENTER GARAGE" on it, this is where they're going:

The story the logo tells is pretty basic. It was redesigned a couple years back; the logo was effectively and successfully simplfied, and the arrowheads were removed, reflecting the observation that bus riders don't necessarily have downtown Portland as thier origin or destination.

This next photo is of an old logo I particularly love:

This is on the side of a workshop across the street from PGE's main base, which just so happens to be just north of TriMet's headquarters on SE 17th Avenue. This logo is just plain cool (and I used this photo as the reference for creating my own Adobe Illustrator version (illustrated here and seen for the first time in this post).

I also very much enjoy PGE's current logo, which I feel pays a certain thematic homage to this old logo, which, in my view, is as close to pefection as it needs to be.

Keep an eye on your surroundings. Learn not just to look, but to see, and you'll sometimes be surprised what will come at you.

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Where It's At

This Here Blogger

Graphic designer, writer, editor. Worker in the Big Machine; the quintessential working-class native Oregonian, I drive some of the grimier gears so the Big Cats and Kittens don't have to. Am in the process of reinventing myself as the artist I always ought to have been. My blog is The ZehnKatzen Times.

This sentence, courtesy of commenter "JD", will help you remember the initials in order:All Across Portland Our Streets Wind Around Mossy Yards. Traffic Snarls May Mean Jammed Cars, Cranky Motorists Making Minimal Headway. Harried Commuters Just Love Going Slow.

Commenter Dave DiNucci, using enough of the letters from each word to eliminate ambiguity, gives us the following two possiblilities: This first one plays on the fact that alphabetically-arranged streets going north from Burnside are named for Portland founders while those going south do not:ANcestors ASsociated Portland Oregon STreets With ALphabetic MORtals, Yet Toward SAlem, MAInly MADe JEjune, COLUmnar, CLiche MARked MIxtures. MONotones HARmonize HALfway, COLLiding JAuntily. Lines Gently SHim.

This second one is more poetic but less PDX-centered, but works the Gorge in, as well as Lincoln, Grant, and Sheridan: